Variable stack feeder with hydraulic control

Abstract

Apparatus and method for cutting and feeding foliage material from a stack, the apparatus comprising a wheeled vehicle, for example a wagon pulled by a tractor, capable of being displaced along the ground, a tiltable bed thereon disposed in a parallel position between ground engaging wheels and a powered conveyor so that a stack of foliage may be loaded onto the bed from a position on the ground (or unloaded from the bed back to the ground) and also may be successively advanced along the conveyor bed to provide an overhang beneath and forward of a rotating angularly disposed variable cutter which travels horizontally and then vertically downward in a zig-zag pattern to successively cut slices of foliage from the overhang of the stack. The sliced material is forced out by a shield of the cutter and falls under force of gravity substantially continuously as it is cut onto a transverse foliage conveyor at the front of the vehicle and is thereby deposited upon the ground as a livestock feed windrow while the vehicle is displaced or into feed bins or onto another vehicle for subsequent processing while said stack vehicle is stationary. The rotating cutter is part of a traveling unit mounted on a carriage which is selectively moved vertically on a frame mounted on the vehicle. The traveling unit selectively moves horizontally from side-to-side. A pressurized hydraulic system and electronic system, which may comprise part of the tractor or otherwise, selectively powers the moving parts of the apparatus.

What is claimed and desired to be secured by United States Letters Patent is: 
     
       1. A stack feeder comprising: foliage cutting blade means;   first fluid driven power means carried by a vehicle for rotating the blade means to cut foliage from the face of a stack of foliage carried upon the vehicle;   second fluid driven power means carried by the vehicle for translating the blade means along a predetermined path directly adjacent the stack carried upon the vehicle;   valve means carried by the vehicle interposed between the two fluid driven power means;   means communicating effluent fluid from the first fluid driven power means to the valve means and thence to the second fluid driven power means whereby a decrease in or elimination of rotation of the blade means will correspondingly decrease or eliminate, respectively, fluid to the second fluid driven power means whereby the translation of the blade means will be correspondingly decreased or eliminated, respectively.   
     
     
       2. A crop cutting apparatus comprising: crop cutting means;   first fluid driven power means carried by a vehicle for causing the crop cutting means to be displaced so as to cut crop from the face of a stack loaded on the vehicle;   second fluid driven power means carried by a vehicle for translating the crop cutting means in respect to the face of the crop stack to be cut;   valve means interposed between the two fluid driven power means whereby fluid may be directed to the second fluid driven power means or not as desired when the first fluid driven power means are passing fluid;   means communicating effluent fluid from the first fluid driven power means to the valve means and thence to the second fluid driven power means whereby a decrease in or elimination of the cutting displacement of the crop cutting means will correspondingly decrease or eliminate, respectively, fluid to the second fluid driven power means whereby the translation of the crop cutting means will be correspondingly decreased or eliminated, respectively.